Another £2.4m is on the way for North East enterprise development, with a European Union backed project to provide technology and business support leading to the generation of new energy companies.
The New and Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) is benefiting from additional investment from regional development agency One North East to fund its Incubation & Inward Investment project, supporting the development of technology based businesses and their products.
This will create and attract new businesses into the region, providing 40 jobs and assisting over 100 companies with innovation. It will also offer 150m2 of R&D premises and incubation space for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to test ideas and accelerate product development.
The project is being part financed by the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13, securing £502,000 ERDF investment, to which the agency has added £1.49m from its Single Programme.
With specialist energy technology business support provided through an incubator unit and associated professional and technical services, the project will also support business networking and the region’s inward investment and other business support activities.
“Narec is the UK’s lead centre for the testing and development of renewable energy technology and provides a wide range of specialist consultancy to encourage early stage companies and university spin-outs to enter the market,” explained Andy Williamson, Director of Business Development from Narec.
“The provision of specialist business support will continue to attract international investors through the development of a North East technology hub for clean technology. We will offer a bespoke package of technology support to potential businesses from each of these avenues, leading to the generation and growth of a hub of energy technology companies in the region.”
Maintaining its close working relationship with Business Link and Renew, Narec will provide niche technology business support, signposting clients where appropriate and providing direct services where specialist expertise is not available elsewhere. Services will include access to testing and prototyping space and technology development advice.
“Our focus will be on low carbon renewable energy technologies and closely aligned support service companies with potential for commercialisation and growth,” Andy continued. “Incubator space will be provided to new or developing energy technology companies through the Charles Parson’s Technology Centre and Brunel Building.
“This will allow the continued facilitation of financial structuring, business plan development, commercial negotiations and Intellectual Property rights, as well as access to market intelligence and networks.”
Narec will support work led by One North East and UK Trade & Investment to identify opportunities for overseas energy sector companies to locate to the region, accelerating the development of a hub of energy technology businesses.
Technology and knowledge-based events will also stimulate a regional innovation network, in particular to bring together technologists and developers with possible funding sources.
“This project will help the region maintain and exploit its position to be an early leader in forming clusters of energy technology companies,” added One North East chief executive Alan Clarke.
“As an identified innovation connector in the ERDF 2007-13 programme, our intention is that Narec becomes a magnet for further investment opportunities, with energy businesses feeding off each other and bringing sustainable growth to the sector.”
Innovation connectors are key investment priorities in the ERDF Competitiveness programme 2007-13 and Regional Economic Strategy. They bring together joint business and industry research, education, skills development and access to employment based around leading edge facilities.
The ERDF 2007-13 programme is bringing over £300m into North East England to support innovation, enterprise and business support. It will help create and safeguard 28,000 new jobs, start 3,000 new businesses and increase the region’s productivity by £1.1bn per annum.
The project delivers Business Growth: Specialist Facilities and Environments funded as part of Solutions for Business, the Government’s package of publicly funded business support designed to help companies start and grow.
